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10.21.2012

No More Binders, Blinders or Boundaries

 
Barbara Kruger, Your Body is a Battleground, 1989

 
Barbara Kruger created this poster in 1989 to support and promote a march on Washington opposing the overthrow of  Roe v. Wade. Now the battle is raging anew by repugnicans in Congress who seek smaller government (except when it interferes with their own narrow view of how things should be).
 
The image below is not by Kruger--it's a project of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project, designed by the Devito/Verdi advertising agency, so I feel a little uncomfortable using it--yet it so perfectly bookends the issue 25 years later that I've put it in.
 
Vote Yes for women: Vote for Barack Obama. Vote to keep the Democratic majority in the Senate. Vote to regain the House. You don't want to have to be doing this (again)  25 years from now.
 


 

11 comments:

Roberta Warshaw said...

I don't think you have to feel bad about using it. So many people have appropriated her style by now that it no longer seems to matter. I am sure she has resigned herself to it by now. As long as the message is one she would approve of............

Scarlett said...

Joanne, I really appreciate your posts! I think they reach a wide audience and are so incredibly necessary in these distressing times. Thanks!!!

Anonymous said...

"repugnicans"... wow. I thought you were smarter than that Joanne. A tad sophomoric, don't you think? We need more bipartisanship. That won't happen when the extremes from both sides continue to resort to insults. I'm just glad that moderates from both side outnumber the extremist elements of the two parties. If it were not for that fact, I think we would be facing civil war by now.

Anonymous said...

I'll add that men deserve rights as well. Such as not being forced into indentured servitude for 18 years involving children they did not want.

If a man decides he wants nothing to do with a child before it is born... he should have the right to do. Men should not have to pay child support for children they would have chosen to abort had they had the option to do so.

Abortion should be a woman's choice. Her body, her choice. Right? And since women have that choice... they should be responsible for the children they bring into this world. Aside from rape, women have the choice of using protection. They also have the choice to abort.

Her body, her responsibility. Stop forcing men to be fathers. Stop forcing men to live up to the traditional role of 'breadwinner'. If a man does not want a child... he should have every right to 'abort' his involvement if the child is unwanted by him. If women have the right to decide a child is unwanted... men should have that right as well by having the right to 'abort' their obligations before the child is born.

Joanne Mattera said...

Anonymous 8:00--

And here you are,with your patronizing attitude, yet remaining anonymous. That's brave of you. Identify yourself or let it be known that you don't have the courage to stand up and out for your opinion.

BTW, not only do I use the term "repugnican," sometimes I use "repignican" as well.

Anon 8:12--
I'm not unsympathetic to your position. However, if a man doesn't wish to be a father, HE needs to take the personal responsibility of preventing conception. Vasectomy? Abstinence? Your choice. The only way you can be absolutely sure of the outcome is if your spern is not fertilizing the egg. Otherwise you're just whining.

Anonymous said...

I love reading about art matters and your musings. I'm not interested in your politics. Please don't tell me who to vote for!

Joanne Mattera said...

Ah, another Anonymouse.

Friend, if you don't want my politics, dont come here because I serve them up generously with the art.

VOTE OBAMA! VOTE DEMOCRATIC! VOTE PROGRESSIVE!

Nancy Natale said...

You caught a few real jerks in your political net, Joanne. I guess it's not as easy to weed out these fools on your blog as it is in Facebook. However, perhaps these Repugnicans (and I proudly share that term with you and use it continually) don't realize that it's possible to identify them on your blog using the Google analytic tools that all Google bloggers have. They may think they are anonymous, but you can find out who they are fairly easily when you look at your stats.

The guy (I assume) who claims he should be able to "abort" an unwanted child displays the height of fucking (literal) entitlement. He wants to do all the fucking without any of the responsibility. Let him get a vasectomy, as you suggest, if he's so worried about having children. Or is he afraid that his weenie is already so small that he doesn't dare lose any more down there?

You've inspired me to post some political information and endorsements in my own blog. I want to lure some Repug fish myself.

Anonymous said...

Damned right, Joanne!

Karen Schifano said...

Almost leaves me speechless to find artists of the ilk above!Thank you Joanne for helping to bring them out of the woodwork, but they need to understand how backwards they are re: women's bodies. This is 2012, not 1950, and men are still not victims!

Joanne Mattera said...

Thanks Nancy and Anon 9:25.

I'd add that my art comments and musings are informed by the person I am--female, feminist, lesbian, traveler, a painter, an organizer, an artist who is professionally experienced. I didn't create a life for myself by caving to someone else's idea of who I should be or what I should write.